Transmission opportunity duration field in high efficiency signal field

1. An apparatus of a high-efficiency (HE) station (STA), the apparatus comprising: memory; and, processing circuitry coupled to the memory, the processing circuitry configured to:

encode a first high efficiency (HE) physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU), the first HE PPDU comprising a first media access control (MAC) portion and a HE preamble portion, the HE preamble portion comprising a transmission opportunity (TXOP) field, wherein the TXOP field is seven (7) bits;

if the first MAC portion is encoded to include a first duration field indicating a first duration value, set the TXOP field to indicate a largest duration value representable by the TXOP field that is equal to or less than the first duration value, wherein a portion of the first duration field indicates the first duration value is 15 bits;

if the first MAC portion is not encoded to include the first duration field, set the TXOP field based on a second duration field of a second MAC portion of a second HE PPDU that solicited the first HE PPDU; and

configure the HE STA to transmit the first HE PPDU.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

set the TXOP field to a value indicating no duration information.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein set the TXOP field based on the second duration field further comprises:

set the TXOP field to indicate the value of the second duration field minus a time, in microseconds, between an end of the second HE PPDU and an end of the first HE PPDU.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

if the value of the second duration field minus the time, in microseconds, between the end of the second HE PPDU and the end of the first HE PPDU includes a fractional microsecond, then round up the value to a next higher integer.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first MAC portion is a physical-layer convergence (PLCP) service data unit (PSDU).

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first HE PPDU is a HE trigger based (TB) PPDU and the second HE PPDU is a trigger frame.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first HE PPDU is one from the following group:

a HE single user (SU) PPDU, a HE SU extended range (EXT) PPDU, a HE multiple user (MU) PPDU, or a HE trigger based (TB) PPDU.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the largest duration value indicated by the TXOP field is equal to an integer indicated by a first value of the TXOP field times a granularity indicated by a second value of the TXOP duration field.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein a constant is added or subtracted from the integer.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

configure the HE STA to transmit the first HE PPDU in accordance with one or both of orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) or multiple-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO).

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

if the first MAC portion is to include the first duration field indicating the first duration value, set the first duration value to indicate a duration of a remaining time in a current TXOP.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein set the TXOP field to indicate the largest duration value representable by the TXOP field further comprises:

if a granularity bit of the TXOP field is not set, set a value of the TXOP field to be the first duration value divided by 8 rounded down to a nearest integer.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein set the TXOP field to indicate the largest duration value representable by the TXOP field further comprises:

if the granularity bit of the TXOP field is set, set the value of the TXOP field to be the first duration value minus a constant divided by 128 rounded down to a nearest integer.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the HE STA is configured to operate in accordance with at least one from the following group: institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11ax and IEEE 802.11.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a transceiver coupled to the processing circuitry; and further comprising one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of an apparatus of a high-efficiency (HE) station (STA), the instructions to configure the one or more processors to:

encode a first high efficiency (HE) physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU), the first HE PPDU comprising a first media access control (MAC) portion and a HE preamble portion, the HE preamble portion comprising a transmission opportunity (TXOP) field, wherein the TXOP field is seven (7) bits;

if the first MAC portion is encoded to include a first duration field indicating a first duration value, set the TXOP field to indicate a largest duration value representable by the TXOP field that is equal to or less than the first duration value, wherein a portion of the first duration field indicating the first duration value is 15 bits;

if the first MAC portion is not encoded to include the first duration field, set the TXOP field based on a second duration field of a second MAC portion of a second HE PPDU that solicited the first HE PPDU; and

configure the HE STA to transmit the first HE PPDU.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the instructions further configure the one or more processors to:

set the TXOP field to a value indicating no duration information.

18. A method performed by an apparatus of a high-efficiency (HE) station (STA), the method comprising:

encoding a first high efficiency (HE) physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU), the first HE PPDU comprising a first media access control (MAC) portion and a HE preamble portion, the HE preamble portion comprising a transmission opportunity (TXOP) field, wherein the TXOP field is seven (7) bits;

if the first MAC portion is encoded to include a first duration field indicating a first duration value, setting the TXOP field to indicate a largest duration value representable by the TXOP field that is equal to or less than the first duration value, wherein a portion of the first duration field indicating the first duration value is 15 bits;

if the first MAC portion is not encoded to include the first duration field, setting the TXOP field based on a second duration field of a second MAC portion of a second HE PPDU that solicited the first HE PPDU; and

configure the HE STA to transmit the first HE PPDU.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the method further comprises:

setting the TXOP field to a value indicating no duration information.